Free: The Ideal
by Penelopi
Summary: Continuation of my prior fic "Free," in honor of NiGHTS's 21st Birthday! NiGHTS has been imprisoned as punishment for freeing a dreamer. He struggles to keep himself entertained and to push back the despair creeping into his heart. Will he ever be free again?
1. The Ideal Place

**Author's Notes:**

Several people requested me to continue "Free," and I was also getting the urge, so I started up a sequel. I thought the perfect time to post an update would be on July 5th, NiGHTS's anniversary :) Enjoy!

Happy 21st Anniversary, NiGHTS!

 **Copyright Info** : All characters and settings in this chapter were created by Sega and Sonic Team.

* * *

 _The Ideal Place_

I admit I felt bitter at first against the dreamer. By coming back in time from when we were apparently friends, she'd shown my future to Wizeman. And big surprise, he hadn't liked it.

The Ideya Palace he stuffed me in was wider than the dreamer's cage, but I still felt restricted. Just on the other side of the blue columns was the darkness of Nightmare that I'd always known: a wasteland of burnt trees and castle rubble, the ruins of another dreamer's Nightopia, seeable but unreachable through the invisible walls bordering the Palace.

I sat in the corner to sulk. Partys passed by to titter at me, which was even more humiliating than when Reala laughed at me. He and I had been rivals and partners, but the Third Levels had been insignificant, mere pawns of our Ideya-capturing missions. And now they were laughing at _me_ , the First Level who'd dared to free a dreamer, while they chased the fairy-like natives outside.

I decided to wait out my punishment, to stay there and mull over my stupidity until Wizeman finally sent someone to free me. Would it be Reala, I wondered? Or Jackle? Or perhaps even a Third-Level, just to humiliate me even more?

I should have known my master never intended to release me. The possibility of betrayal made him angry and—now I know—afraid. That girl had shown him a future he wanted to prevent. A light he would quench before it was lit.

As it is, I only found out Wizeman's intentions by spending too long in the Ideya Palace. Days turned into weeks, then turned into months, and no one had freed me. The thought that he probably wouldn't let me go, that he'd discarded me like so many other failed creations, began to nag me.

I swam around in the Palace's stale air, circling over and over again, trying to stay sane. I made some twirls and loops to pass the time, but I thought I was going to choke on my own Twinkle Dust.

Finally, just as I thought I'd snap, I felt something different in the Palace. Winds pulled me, as if air were leaking out someplace.

Curious, I leaned back and let myself drift. In a few moments, the air began to pull me. I rolled and felt my way toward the hole I sensed. There it was, in the middle.

I reached my hand out until, in the center of the Ideya Palace, it stretched and disappeared.

I held my handless sleeve cuff up to my face. Huh. That was interesting, I thought.

Well, I figured wherever the hole led to, it was probably better there than where I was, so I might as well follow my hand. With a shrug, I fed my arm in and let the invisible thing suck me through, piece by piece. I closed my eyes as my face stretched.

Seconds later, I slithered out and expanded in my new space, a bright blue...!

Oh. It was another Ideya Palace.

I took a look around. Yes, it was the same blue dome ceiling, and there were the same blue columns that came up only to face-level. I glided to the edge of the pagoda, hands first, ready to brace myself. Sure enough, I bumped into an invisible wall. I was still trapped. I sighed, pressing my hands on the barrier the way I'd seen dreamers press against windows and stare out at places they couldn't go. I probably looked just as pathetic as they did.

At least the view was better there than in my old prison: rolling hills, green grass, distant mountains, and floating windmills just beyond... a gentle breeze, too, which rustled the grass and even blew into the Palace. I finally felt fresh air on my skin!

And there was sunlight. There hadn't been much of it in Nightmare. My hands seemed almost ghost-white in the light, as if I were made of fog. And it felt hot. Would I disappear in the light, I wondered, swallowed by that shining world?

My eyes ached after a while from the brightness, but I stayed whole. And the next day, there I was, still not a ghost, still fully alive, still trapped, bleached, and feeling sorry for myself.

I both did and didn't want to go out into the land beyond. It was a Nightopia for sure: a dreamscape created by a human dreamer. Nothing so bright, beautiful, and joyful could be anything but. Just as I had been drawn by the warmth of the dreamer who'd ensnared me, I was tempted by this world of light. But I couldn't ever reach that world, could I, much less live in it if I did?

As time went on and I became bored again, I thought about how dreamers dream and imagine—how lucid ones can create things out of thin air. And I thought to myself, Why don't I try it? Make something to pass the time?

I sat on the air, raised my hands, and closed my eyes, imagining a long wind instrument. I'd seen it in many dreams: it was silver, cool, and metal, with several holes and circular buttons to press down. It was played with fingers arched to the side of the head, like this, and when you breathed, it sounded...

It sounded light, high, clear, and sweet, like the breeze. Like flying itself...

I was hearing it, the ascending notes. They rose until they drifted out the pagoda to join the wind outside. The mountains echoed them back softly. They breezed over the grass like a spring gust, dancing, making me almost feel as if there were no barrier at all. Nothing between myself and freedom.

I opened my eyes.

The Palace was still there. And when I centered my eyes, I saw there was nothing between my fingers.

How could this be? I was sure I'd heard the sound. I'd even felt the vibration of the flute's body!

I puffed where I'd formed the blow hole. Nothing came.

Growling, I closed my eyes to refocus the image. The flute was there, I told myself, if only I thought so.

I breathed, but the whistle that came out was made by my own lips and teeth.

I blew a few more times with no luck before I finally sighed and threw my arms up in frustration. How do the dreamers do it?! I asked myself. I decided to stop and try again later.

I did try the next day, and nothing happened. Then the next, still with no result. I grumbled and swore to abandon the idea altogether. It had to be a dreamer thing. A Nightmaren couldn't create, I thought.

But boredom—and, I admit, a bit of jealousy for the beautiful creation around me—drove me to keep picking it back up, no matter how useless it seemed.

After several weeks of on and off practicing, I could feel the tube of the flute in my hands, even if I could never see it. I could hold it steady in front of my face as a solid, invisible object, and I could make a few trilling notes. That was this caged bird's song: the chirps of a flute, rising on the wind in my place, carrying hope for a day when I would fly just as free...

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

There will be another chapter up within the week. Stay tuned!

-Penelopi


	2. The Ideal Ally

_Free: The Ideal Ally_

The Nightopia changed me. My skin, to my surprise, tanned. My black colors, on the other hand, bleached to purple. I tore off my cape: I didn't need it to give myself a menacing appearance, anymore. And anyways it was too hot for this dream.

I practiced music day after day, experimenting with the keys of my invisible flute to see what sounds and tunes I could replicate. Even though I was in a Nightopia, dreamers were nowhere to be seen. I figured the owner must have been busy elsewhere.

Even though I had my flute, my life had become rather boring. Music is fun, but flying is more fun, and I wanted to be out there catching the updrafts over the mountains. I was so desperate for entertainment that I tried coaxing some Nightopians to the Ideya Palace. But as dumb as they were, they weren't dumb enough to fall for that. I couldn't even pinch their cheeks or use them for softballs.

But then, one day, something else came over the rolling hills.

It didn't have the wings or halo of a Nightopian. It was taller, and it was walking on its two legs.

A dreamer.

It was another girl. But this one had reddish—no, pink—hair pulled back in a ponytail. She wore clothes that would have helped her stay cool in the waking world, since most of her arms and legs were uncovered. From her height and body shape, I guessed she was in the teenage years—those years when they start resembling adults but are still judged too inexperienced for full independence.

Four shining globes of different colors swirled around her: Ideya, the embodiments of a dreamer's psyche. It was impressive that she had all of the typical Ideya even at adolescence. Most by her age had lost at least the white one.

I had been playing my flute, but after I saw the dreamer, I stopped to stare. There had been no one out here for the weeks I'd been in this Nightopia. What was she doing here now?

I let go of the flute and drifted to the edge of my prison to watch her more closely. She looked dazed, and she stumbled around gawking, as if this world were alien to her. It was strange that she didn't feel comfortable in her dream, especially a nice one like this. What was wrong with her?

Then I saw a red-and-white striped shell zooming in behind her. The Kircle clicked its crab claws, chuckling over what it was about to do.

If Ideya are like lamps, Nightmare is like shadows. The more Ideya the Nightmarens steal, the less light, and the more Nightmare can expand. Wizeman likes that, the power he can have over dreamers' minds by spreading his dominion. And the Kircle, as all Nightmarens, was looking forward to pleasing Wizeman with its work.

The girl looked over her shoulder and ran, but it was pointless. I could hear other Nightmarens coming.

They swarmed in, leaping out from behind the trees and bushes. Other Kircles and some legless yellow Shleep dove on the dreamer.

She screamed while they tossed her around like a beach ball. Each snagged an Ideya as they passed her. In seconds, all four were taken.

Then they dropped her flat on her back and flew away snickering. The clicking and baa-ing and laughing died out, leaving just me and the dreamer.

She rolled over and rubbed her back, groaning. "Ow."

I looked around at the Nightopia. The sun still shone, and that wonderful breeze still turned the windmills and brushed the grass. But I knew it wouldn't be that way for long. Not with the girl's Ideya gone.

I'd seen it happen to so many other Nightopias. Their light continued for a while, but in hours—at most a day—they became dark, silent, and lifeless. The Nightopians that couldn't get away were bullied or eaten by Third Levels.

And now Nightmare was going to take this world away, too.

This Nightopia looked fun. And it was going to be destroyed before I even got to play in it. It would be boring again. And cold. And dark.

I touched the red gem in my chest to stop a… chill, I suppose you could call it. Just thinking about going back to Nightmare made me sick. There was nothing I could do about it, though.

This world would die.

The light would die.

My hope would die.

The girl stood up. Her eyebrows pinched together, and at first I thought she was going to cry. That wouldn't have been unusual for someone in her shoes. But then something came out of her body, shining bright red. Oh, sweet powers above, I thought to myself, was that what I thought it was?

"You," I said.

She turned around so fast I thought she was going to trip. Staring at me across the hill, she demanded, "Who are you?"

"My name is NiGHTS," I said. I smiled in a way that I hoped looked friendly. I had no fangs, so that should have helped.

She took a cautious step forward. "What are you?"

I almost said, "a Nightmaren," but I didn't want to scare her away. "An ally," I said. "I want to help you save your dream."

"So this _is_ a dream?"

"Yes. You know that because you're lucid dreaming. Because of your Red Ideya."

"Ideya?" She came closer.

I could use this, I thought. I could get out of the Ideya Palace by using her body. After all, the barrier was only designed to stop Nightmarens, not human dreamers.

"Parts of your heart," I explained. "They create worlds like this." I frowned for dramatic effect before continuing. "The Nightmarens took your Ideya, except for your Red one. This world will die soon if we don't get the others back."

I wondered what I'd do once I got out. I could only stay free for as long as the dreamer was asleep. Once she woke, I'd return to my prison.

"How do we get them back?" she asked. She was almost at the edge of the pagoda, now. Her eyes were pink. What a strange color.

I looked away for a moment to think. Ideya could open Ideya Palaces. If we got all of the girl's Ideya back, I could possibly be freed. But the girl didn't have the power to fight the Nightmarens on her own. She was young, (mostly) Ideya-less, and land-bound. The only option I had was…

I touched my chest again. I didn't want to, but it was the only way. I couldn't stand to stay in the Palace-or in Nightmare-forever.

I found myself turning and saying to her, "We'll have to join together. I can't leave this Ideya Palace without you, and you can't fight the Nightmarens without me."

She raised a pink eyebrow. "We'll join forces to win?"

"We will _join_." I held out my hand. "You and I will merge together and share a body."

The girl took a step back, scrunching up her nose. No, no, no…! Don't go! "How does _that_ work?"

I held myself still, afraid that any movement or hint of desperation might send her running. "All you have to do is take my hand."

She was studying my face.

I begged, "Please. It's the only way."

Her forehead pinched again, but this close I could tell it wasn't from her almost crying. It was a glare of determination. Of Courage.

"Alright," she said, and stepped across into the pagoda.

I swallowed down a squeal, though I'm pretty sure I was still grinning. That's alright. I looked friendly.

She faced me and started to raise her hand towards mine. "Your name is NiGHTS?" she said.

"Yeah."

"I'm Claris."

"Pleased to meet you."

Our hands touched.

* * *

 **Author's Notes**

I was never quite sure what the explanation was for how NiD worked. If I messed up on the lore for Ideya, the Ideya Capture, etc, please let me know D:

The next chapter will come when I get a chance to write it. I've been busy moving into a new townhouse :) See you all around!

-Penelopi


	3. The Ideal Growth

**Copyright Info  
**

NiGHTS into Dreams is produced by Sega and Sonic Team. None of the characters or settings in this chapter are mine.

* * *

 _Free: The Ideal Growth  
_

I was flying.

I was... flying _..._

I was _flying!_

I grazed the treetops. The wind blew over my twin-tailed hat. The hills zipped by underneath me. One, two, three, four—too many to count! I laughed.

I was free.

Nothing could stop me now. Wizeman wouldn't have his way! I'd roll around in this Nightopia until not a shred of his scent was left on me!

"This is amazing," I heard a voice say.

I'd almost forgotten the dreamer.

She wasn't speaking out loud, only through my mind, but that was… interesting in and of itself. I'd only let her Dualize with me out of desperation. Really, I didn't want her using my body. I wanted to take myself around where _I_ wanted, for once. But she hadn't seemed to have figured out yet that she could. We both were inside my body, we each had a hand on the wheel, and both of us could move me, but Claris wasn't steering. Yet.

She sucked in her breath as we came over a small stream.

"Yeah, beautiful, isn't it?" I said. I brought us low, close enough to hear the bubbling water. I thought I wouldn't mind running my finger over the surface, getting a taste of its coolness...

My hand and arm moved before I even finished the thought. My finger dipped in as my mouth laughed. At the same time, I could hear her giggling in my head. A very strange, unnerving sensation.

I frowned. "Hey. You need to let me drive."

"Huh?" My mouth gawked.

"We still need to get your Ideya back, remember?" I pulled up from the stream. "We're going to have to fight them, and you're not very used to this, yet. It's better to let me handle it."

"Oh, yeah, that's right..."

I steered us away from the stream and the hills, scanning around, looking for a certain... Aha!

"There!" I said, pointing to a giant blue jellyfish-like blob floating up ahead. The mushroom top held the white orb: the White Ideya. "That's an Ideya Capture," I explained to Claris. "It has one of your Ideya inside, so we'll have to break it out."

"How do we do that?" I felt her frowning my mouth. It bothered me to give her so much control, but if I was going to be free, I had to tolerate it.

"That's the trick," I said. "We can go in and out of it as much as we want—" which was because I'm a Nightmaren, though I didn't say that out loud, "—but Ideya can't leave it. It has to be destroyed by..." I spotted a tiny blue dot floating to the right and grinned. "...these Blue Chips!"

"What are Blue Chips?"

I cocked my head as I steered us to it. "I'm not quite sure. I heard that it was a weapon for dreamers, that your minds make them so you can fight off Nightmarens."

She cocked my head the other way and knitted my forehead in confusion. "I thought I couldn't fight the Nightmarens on my own."

I chuckled as we pulled up to the Blue Chip. "Not really. These will only do so much. You'd never be able to defeat enough by throwing them."

"So we throw them?"

"You have a lot of questions, don't you? No, no, _we_ don't have to throw them. Just watch." My grin widened, and I rolled up and over the Blue Chip.

We made a whole loop. The moment my twinkle dust trail closed on itself, my Paralooping caused a vortex. It's kind of like the air gets sucked into a whirlpool, then splashes out when the hole seals up, along with pretty purple, pink, and bluish light effects. It makes a big "whoosh" sound~

"Woah!"

My Paraloop swallowed that Blue Chip like a hungry animal. It was a bit overkill for only one of them, but what can I say? I like to show off.

I was trying to keep from laughing as Claris widened my eyes and gasped out loud, "What was that?!"

"My Paraloop," I said. "I use it to store things, or destroy them. I can form much bigger loops if I want to, and everything inside gets sucked in. That's how we'll gather the Blue Chips, and how we'll fight the Nightmarens. We'll get enough Blue Chips and battle our way to the Ideya Capture, and then I'll release the Chips inside, and boom! The Ideya will be free!"

"Okay..."

"What? Are you scared?" I couldn't resist teasing her. Possibly the result of a lifetime of scaring humans.

"No, it just surprised me. Can... we do it again? The Paraloop?"

I grinned. "Sure! Let's try it on them!"

By "them," I meant a couple Shleep and a string of Blue Chips I'd spotted by a thick tree.

Oh, this was gonna be fun! Those Third-Levels wouldn't even know what hit them! I pulled my arms in and spun, like a drill, to pick up speed. The horizon turned with us.

Who was laughing? Me or Claris?

I was at least laughing inside as I came out of the spin next to the first Shleep. Its eyes got wide and it farted yellow puffs before I dipped under and around it.

Whoosh! In a spatter of sparkles, it, and a few Blue Chips, were gone.

Then the other Shleep followed. Claris leaned into the curve as we twirled around it. Wha-whoosh!

Two Nightmarens destroyed at my hands. Or sparkles.

Wizeman was going to be so mad... Yesssssssssssss!

I cheered and made a long, slow backwards arch, stretching in the sun, in that bright world. Claris had a cheek-hurting smile plastered on our face. This was fun for _both_ of us. I was enjoying flying with this dreamer, frolicking in this windswept valley that I'd once thought would burn me. This world wasn't so scary after all.

As I turned, I spotted dancing blue. I blinked and straightened to see it.

It was a silver cage, with fancy swirly corners, floating near the top of the tree, and it was holding a _lot_ of Blue Chips. I laughed. "Oh good! They tried to put the Blue Chips away in a cage!"

"I guess that was a bad idea?"

"Well, it would have been difficult for you to reach from the ground, but with me here—" I gathered myself into a spin, dashing straight up at it. "—this will be easy!"

We collided head-first with the cage and it split open, raining Blue Chips. I instinctively flinched when they fell on me, but they entered my body without so much as a sting. Having the dreamer was good protection.

"What's wrong?" Claris asked.

She was perceptive. What did she do in the waking world, I wondered?

"Nothing." I smiled. "I think we should have enough Blue Chips, now. Let's go into that Ideya Capture."

"Alright."

We turned and flew back for the jellyfish. Nightopians stared at me from the ground below. They probably weren't sure what to make of me, someone who was clearly a Nightmaren but was fighting other Nightmarens. I would have been more worried if they could have posed a threat, but I'd never known one of those fairies to be able to hurt anything, even if they tried.

The blue blob was coming up. "So how do we do this?" Claris asked.

"I'm gonna just fly in and spit out the Chips," I said.

"Okay…?" She grimaced. "How does that feel?"

"You'll find out."

Going in felt like passing through a thin waterfall—or a water curtain, I guess. Inside, we could see the full glow of the White Ideya, brighter than a lantern, scattering the shadows to the edges of the chamber.

"That's my Ideya?"

"Yeah. The White Ideya of Purity."

It was mesmerizing. I always had liked their glowiness—their beauty, I guess—but I'd had few chances to really study them: I'd passed them off almost as soon as I got them. I slid closer to the Ideya and held out my hands, feeling its warmth.

"So… you're spitting up the Chips?" Claris asked.

I started. "Y-Yes, of course!"

How would I do that, actually? I could release the ones sucked up by the Paraloop, but what about the ones absorbed into my body?

Then I heard a sizzling sound.

"I think it's burning," Claris said.

I looked up and saw the watery dome bubbling.

"And we're glowing."

I looked at my body, and sure enough I was giving off a faint white glow. A loud pop sounded overhead. I supposed I didn't need to do anything to pull out the Chips. We watched as it started to blow up like explosive popcorn.

"Is it supposed to do that?" she asked.

I smirked. "Yeah, this is how an Ideya Capture dies."

The whole thing around us went up in flames and fell apart, and the pieces dropped to the ground. The bright sun was on my face again. I laughed, "Take that, Wizeman!"

"Who's Wizeman?"

"A really mean guy." I directed her attention to the White Ideya that was swirling around us. "Look, the Ideya has been freed, and it's come back to you!"

She reached with my hand to touch it as it orbited by. It felt like running my hand through steam. "Meaning my world is safe."

"Yes, for now, but let's not stop yet! We still have three others to get, and the more we have, the safer we are!" I pointed in the distance. "See, another Ideya Capture! Let's drop this one off at the Ideya Palace first, and then we'll go take that!" I could already see a Shleep hungrily eyeing the White Ideya. I didn't need to be distracted keeping Nightmarens off of an Ideya while I was trying to fly.

"Alright."

I banked us to the Palace and flew in. As we passed through, the White Ideya slipped into one of the columns, right in the gap in the middle, and stayed there while we flew on out.

I giggled in glee: no Nightmarens could get in and out of that Palace, except for me, the dreamer-abettor, the Nightmare-avenger, the Nightopia rebel! It was nice having a human. I could break free of my prison with her. What else could I do with the dreamer?

How far could I go?

 _Let's find out,_ I said to myself. We flew toward the next Ideya Capture, which held Claris's gleaming Green Ideya of Growth. She would need that one to grow as a person, to be able to change and become who she wanted to be.

I was growing, too, wasn't I?

Who did I want to be?

* * *

 **Author's Notes**

Sadly, this is it for a while, guys, because of school. But I have enjoyed writing this and will continue it when I get the chance. I hope you've enjoyed it, too.

See you on the flip side!

-Penelopi


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